


fool's justice

by khattikeri



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Arguing, M/M, Making Out, Mutual Pining, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, sort of humor at the end?, two teens in love mackin' in the middle of a cafe bc they don't think they have a future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:21:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27679334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/khattikeri/pseuds/khattikeri
Summary: "I don't want someonebetter,"Akira yells back desperately, voice choking up. "I wantyou, Goro!"
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 14
Kudos: 213





	fool's justice

**Author's Note:**

> yeah lord fuckin help me it's another 2/2 fic from yours truly
> 
> i actually started snippets of this one before the other p5 fics i've posted but i only got around to fleshing this out and finishing it now lol. this wasn't even meant to be for shuake week, i just happened to finish it several hours after posting the other one that i DID intend to write for shuake week day 7.
> 
> title is meant to be both about akira's longing 4 akechi and about shuake getting their justice in the form of me letting them kiss /hj
> 
> anyway! hope u all enjoy this cathartic emotional nonsense mess

_“THIS ISN’T TRIVIAL!”_ Akira shouts, slamming his hands on the booth table with enough force that it reverberates within Leblanc for seconds afterward.

For once, he’s managed to render Akechi silent.

“This isn’t trivial,” Akira says again, voice breaking. “Your _life_ isn’t trivial.”

“Yes, it is,” Akechi seethes quietly. “I haven’t been anything more than a pawn this entire time, be it Shido’s or the False God’s or Maruki’s. I don’t care if my life is a dead end outside of this so-called perfect world. I’d rather be dead and have autonomy over it than be alive without it.” Akechi jabs a finger at Akira’s chest, brows furrowed in irritation. _“That’s_ why I want to hear you say it with your own mouth. Are you taking his deal, or will you fight him?”

Akira clenches his jaw. “We’re beating Maruki. I won’t go back on your request.”

“Good,” Akechi nods. It’s too business-like to look like relief, but Akira thinks it’s close enough. Akechi seems content that Akira is making the right choice.

Akira can feel Akechi’s persona changing. He can tell that Akechi wants to leave immediately before Akira gets sentimental on him, or worse, changes his mind.

(Sucks for him. Akira’s been sentimental over him for over six months now.) 

“Did you know that I still get nightmares about the engine room?" Akira whispers furiously. The sentence hardly ends before his entire demeanor collapses, a cracked bowl finally shattering into a million pieces under its own weight. "I know we need to defeat Maruki, but do you have any idea that I still-- I--"

He can't complete the thought on his tongue; there are too many others racing through his head the second he admits it. What if he'd done something different, setting aside his hurt from betrayal and confronting Akechi directly instead of planning the interrogation scheme the way he did? What if Akechi hadn't locked himself in the engine room and left himself to die for Akira's and everyone else's sake? What if Akira was a worse person and actually let himself be selfish, actually taken up Maruki on his offer of wishes and promises of rivals brought back to life happily ever after?

What if, what if, _what if?_

Akechi turns around to face him again, no longer walking towards the door. His gaze betrays neither pity nor sympathy. It's blank-- not quite cold, but certainly not warm and understanding either. Unimpressed is the closest word Akira can think of to match his expression.

And isn't that just lovely and fitting? Akechi Goro is not the type of person who can easily bare his own heart. It's a simple fact. Akira has known it for months. In fact, Akira is certain that if he were to tell Akechi right now, in exact terms, that he'd fallen in love with him, Akechi would only spit back a disgusted _'get the fuck up, then'_ in response.

"Look,” Akechi sighs, walking back towards Akira again. “We all have our nightmares. I understand that the events of this past year were traumatizing, and I do apologize for that. I understand also that you were brought to care about me for reasons I can’t possibly fathom. However…” 

“What?” Akira asks. It’s a calculated interruption; he knows Akechi would elaborate anyway, but it’s worth it to make sure Akechi knows he’s not about to sit there and just take the ill-guided lecture.

Akechi looks Akira in the eye, and Akira can tell that he’s trying to glare but he’s failing miserably at it. Akechi looks fond and nostalgic and a little bit like he’s forcing himself away from something. “You deserve someone better than me.”

There he goes, being a contradictory ass again. Talking about what Akira deserves or what is best for him when hardly a few minutes ago he was baring fangs at Maruki for doing the exact same thing.

Akira can’t take it anymore.

"I don't want someone _better,"_ Akira yells back desperately, voice choking up. "I want _you, Goro!"_

Horrified silence. Then:

“Are you out of your mind?” Akechi’s eyes are wider than dinner plates, an incredulous, strangled-sounding noise dying in his throat. “Are you-- _I shot you in the head point blank!”_

“As if we had any other choice but to lie to you and let you go through with that!” Akira yells again, the sting of rebellion bubbling in his chest. “If there was even the _slightest_ chance that you’d tell me what you were going through beyond pool-ball metaphors and competitions with weird stakes and cryptic texts, I’d--” he breaks off, realizing how horrifyingly close he is to tears. “I’d have-- “ his voice cracks, and Akira grits his teeth, fist clenching and unclenching as uselessly by his side as the unfinished thought.

“You’re stupid,” Akechi grits his teeth. “So mind-numbingly, paralyzingly _stupid._ You have everything!” There’s a strange twinge of wistfulness that Akira may or may not have been imagining in Akechi’s voice again, but before he can dwell on it Akechi pushes forward: “You have parents. You have connections to so many good-minded people. You created a home for yourself even in the place where society shoved you to rot. You’re so much _better_ than me,” he spits out, “for reasons I don’t even understand. You have so much to lose!”

Akira blinks back bewildered surprise. “Okay?”

“Don’t you get it?” Akechi snarls, mouth twisted in jagged frustration. “That cat of yours got to be human. Sakamoto got his leg and his track team back. Takamaki got her girlfriend back without any of the trauma attached.” Akechi moves towards him, a clear and confident stride, then yanks him by the jacket collar, shoving him to the floor and keeping him pinned there by the wrists. “Kitagawa got the mentor he admired and his mother’s rightful reputation where it should’ve been. Futaba-chan got her mother back, even Okumura and Makoto both got their families back!”

Akira doesn’t like where this is going. “What are you--”

Akechi scowls, frame trembling slightly. “Don’t misunderstand me. I don’t give a rat’s ass about Maruki or his fucking ego project pretending he wants to make everyone happy when he doesn’t give a single shit about letting people have control over their own damn trauma.” His brows crease even further somehow, angry. “But with you, I can’t let it slide.” 

“Akechi, what are you trying to say?” Akira keeps his voice slow and steady only to offset the quickening pace of his heartbeat, a faint sense of pain prickling the pit of his chest as Akechi shakes before him.

“What is _wrong_ with you?!” Akechi shouts, now squarely straddling him in the middle of the cafe. “You could’ve wished for _anything!_ You could’ve wished your probation never happened! You could’ve wished Shido left you the fuck alone and for none of this to have happened! You could’ve wished to be at home with your normal parents and ordinary life without me happily ever after!” 

“Akechi,” Akira says numbly. 

“You could’ve had _anything in the world,_ so why did you wish to bring me back to life against my will?!”

“Akechi--”

“Akira, why did you choose _me?”_ Akechi’s voice dies away towards the end, furious and broken all at once.

Akira’s rather used to feeling like he wants to avoid something, like he wants to put on a mask and stay silent so he doesn’t give his vulnerabilities away, but this is the first time it’s ever happened with Akechi around. 

Akira’s face twists up, bright red with guilt and nerves crashing into each other, and he turns his head to the side. 

“You know why.”

The words come out barely a whisper. Broken and cracking; a passing, final breath of life. Out of the corner of his gaze, shielded with glasses though it is, Akira can see Akechi’s eyes widen in complete shock. He can feel Akechi’s grip loosen.

“...Akira,” Akechi’s voice is a bare hiss; still bursting at the seams with rage and grief, but quieter. “Akira. Look at me.”

Akechi has completely let go of Akira’s wrists by this point. Akira blinks, then sits up, tentatively looking at Akechi--

\--and Akechi is kissing him.

“Mmh--!” Akira jolts, reddening, eyes wide. Akechi’s hands are cool on his face for all of two seconds before they warm up from Akira’s own body heat.

Akechi licks a swipe over Akira’s bottom lip, then slips his tongue in when Akira gasps. They both shudder, practically clawing onto each other, clinging, deepening the kiss and making a mess out of their coats and scarves. It’s competitive but not a fight; the heat is slow and steady and building like a tsunami’s wave within his gut. Akira tucks Akechi’s silky strands of hair behind his ear and holds him close by the back of his neck, allowing his own eyes to slip shut as their mouths continue to meld together. Akechi’s hands sink into Akira’s rich curls of hair and tug, ravenous, refusing to let go--

\--except they have to in order to breathe. When Akechi pulls apart, vigorously wiping out the snapping strands of saliva linking their lips and panting like he’s run a marathon in a minute, he scrambles back, looking simultaneously debauched and horrified with himself. 

Akira’s just as winded, utterly red in the face. “Y-- You--” he can barely get a word out. His voice is croaky. “Ah… Ake...”

“I,” Akechi sounds even more broken than he’d been when he accidentally ate that fireball takoyaki back at Shujin’s culture festival. He steps back, eyes furiously flitting back and forth between Akira and the door. “I-- shouldn’t have--” Akechi freezes, brain overloaded; if this were a cartoon, steam would be coming out of his ears. “I’m going,” he says all of a sudden. “See you in the palace, don’t go back on your word, forget all about this--”

Gingerly, Akira touches his own lips. Traces of Akechi’s warmth are still there. “Akechi, wait--”

“I’m _going!”_ Akechi repeats, sounding faintly strangled as he stiffly marches over to and out the door. “B-Bye, see you later!”

And the door shuts, bell jingling behind him. .

Akira’s phone rings. Mindlessly, Akira answers it without even checking who it is.

Futaba screams in his ear: “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!”

_Right. Forgot about that._

Akira lets out a pathetic noise in lieu of an answer. Futaba babbles some more; he can’t even tell what she’s saying and she eventually cuts the call but he barely notices from how badly his mind is still reeling. He can only vaguely hear the bell on the door chiming again and Sojiro shuffling back into Leblanc.

“I’m back,” Sojiro calls out. “Saw that Akechi kid screaming into a trashcan in one of the back alleyways, did something--” Sojiro blinks down at Akira through his glasses, confused. “Alright, what the hell happened to you?”

Akira’s face is still obscenely heated up from the kiss. He’s not sure he even trusts himself to stand up; his knees feel so wobbly. He opens his mouth to answer. Nothing comes out. He flounders back and forth, blubbering like a fish. 

Sojiro lets out an exhale from his nose. “What, cat got your tongue?”

“A crow,” Akira finally manages to choke out. “A crow got it.”

-

**Author's Note:**

> and then goro wakes up alive in the real world and thinks "shit, my actions have consequences after all" /j
> 
> Thanks for reading! :D [tumblr](http://khattikeri.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/khattikeri)


End file.
